UWG Department of Psychology
Lisa Osbeck, Ph. D.
Wednesday Matters Presentation
Curriculum VitaeE-mail: losbeck@westga.edu
Phone: 678-839-0606
Office: Melson 113
Lisa received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan, her M.A. in clinical psychology from Michigan State University, and her Ph.D. in general psychology with an emphasis in theoretical/philosophical psychology from Georgetown University.
Her abiding interest concerns intuition, particularly the historical development of this concept within philosophy and psychology. She is currently working toward developing an account of intuitive understanding that takes seriously both its conceptual heritage and arguments in favor of the cultural grounding of human knowing.
Lisa most recently spent a year as a Visiting Fellow in the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, to pursue her interest in intuition. She has presented and published papers on a range of topics broadly related to the concept of intuition, including direct perception, direct cognition, insight, and creative discovery. Lisa draws from a number of philosophical traditions to inform her study of these concepts. While completing her Ph.D., Lisa worked as a clinical psychologist for the British National Heath Service and as a research affiliate in the Department of Learning Disabilities, University of Nottingham. She worked primarily with intellectually disabled adults and their families in this capacity. She also conducted qualitative research, most recently examining staff understanding and communication in relation to autistic conditions in adults. She hopes to conduct a similar study with health professionals in the U.S. This research reflects her interest in cultural and service factors influencing clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Lisa is sympathetic to the problems with traditional psychological methods and assumptions identified by social constructionist thinkers, while recognizing shortcomings associated with this approach. Lisa is an affiliate of APA division 24 (theoretical and philosophical psychology), a fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, a member of APS, Cheiron, and the International Society for Ecological Psychology.
Lisa loves travel, poetry, theology, architecture, 19th-century novels, and most animals. She plays the violin very, very poorly.
Influential Works
The Republic (Plato)
Confessions (Augustine)
Sentences (Ockham)
Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Descartes)
An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (Thomas Reid)
Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)
On Certainty (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
The Tacit Dimension (Michael Polanyi)
Experience and Nature (John Dewey)
The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (J. J. Gibson)
The Mentality of Apes (Wolfgang Kohler)
Insight (Bernard Lonergan)
The Intuitive Sources of Probabalistic Thinking in Children (E. Fischbein)
Book of Hours (Ranier Maria Rilke)
The Stranger (Albert Camus)
Dream Songs (John Berryman)
Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy)
